...That is what support for the players who make your job possible looks like. That is what it means for white folks to confront racism. Marcus Smart is the same age as Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis would have been if they had both reached their 19th birthdays this month. These young men, all born at the end of the 20th century, share at least one major sensibility in common. They did not automatically offer deference in the face of white audacity. They met disrespect with disrespect, which in my estimation is the supreme litmus test for whether America deserves its post-racial bona fides. 

Dating sites capture what we do, and play it back for us...People can say whatever they want—that race doesn’t matter, that they don’t see color—but when it comes to selecting a partner, and the selection criteria are formalized through profiles and response decisions, we, as individuals and a society, can no longer hide from ourselves. The numbers blare back at us...Both the user data and the presence of racial identification and preference in the first place are revealing, demolishing arguments about colorblindness and post-racial culture.

as soon as that toothy-grinned parody sits alongside a few peers, it’s an anachronistic gut-punch that contextualizes the absurdity (and yes, the racism).

"Hey, I know I'm a clown. He's just running around acting like one. Doesn't know he is one."

They are convincing us that our fellow Americans cannot be believed. They tell us that we must reject the calls of our fellow citizens to unite together in a struggle to fully realize the promise of freedom and equality our country holds. That is far more dangerous to our national unity than Black people simply telling their truth.

'"It doesn't mean we're in a post-racial society or that racism has been eliminated," Pres. Obama said, but things are getting better.'

www.businessinsider.com

Surprise appearance.

...14 black comedians—veterans and rookies, superstars and nobodies—in separate but equal interviews, compiled...for a kind of oral history, a roundtable state of the union.

When you're working, does there seem to be a diverse mix on the client/agency/crew side? Agency, client and crew all seem to be white. I am usually the only black person on set, or one of three, say, and I have PA'd for more than 100 commercials. There are so few people of color working as copywriters, ADs, directors, DPs and producers that when I see one, it seems weird, but good. Why do you think there are so few people of color working in production? For one thing, there's a lot of nepotism: All the grips are relatives of other grips. But aside from the history of union jobs, a lot of the directors now seem to be coming out of ad agencies that are primarily white, or could afford to go to a fancy film school. It's a privileged person's business. This is true of the networks, too. You go with what you know. That's why we have so many remakes and different versions of the same commercial, with the dumb husband and the smarter wife.

The veiled racism I sense in the United States today is couched, in public discourse at least, in terms that allow for plausible deniability of racist intent. And those who resist any policy initiative from the Obama administration engage in a scorched-earth policy that reminds me of the self-centered white flight, the abandonment of public schools, and the proliferation of private schools, that followed the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision to desegregate public schools. The very people, like my own rural, working-class family back in East Texas, who stand to gain from the efforts of the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress are, because of their racism, willing to oppose policies that would benefit them the most. Their racism outweighs their own self-interest...Unfortunately, racists in the United States have learned one valuable lesson since the 1960s: They cannot express their racism directly. In public, they must veil their racial hatred behind policy differences. This obfuscation makes direct confrontation difficult. Anyone pointing out their racist motivations runs the risk of unfairly playing "the race card." But I know what members of my family mean when they say—as so many said during the town hall meetings in August—that they "want their country back." They want it back, safely, in the hands of someone like them, a white person. They feel that a black man has no right to be the president of their country.

Dear Editor: Please don’t call me a black artist. Please don’t call me a black philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American artist. Please don’t call me an African American philosopher. Please don’t call me a woman artist. Please don’t call me a woman philosopher. Please don’t call me a female artist. Please don’t call me a female philosopher. Please don’t call me a black woman artist. Please don’t call me a black woman philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American woman artist. Please don’t call me an African American woman philosopher. Please don’t call me a black female artist. Please don’t call me a black female philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American female artist. Please don’t call me an African American female philosopher. Please don’t call me a female black artist. Please don’t call me a female black philosopher. Please don’t call me a female African American artist. Please don’t call me a female African American philosopher. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be black. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be black. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be African American. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be a woman. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be female. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be female. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be black and a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be black and a woman. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be a woman and black. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be a woman and black. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be African American and a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be African American and a woman. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be a woman and African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be a woman and African American. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be black and female. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be black and female. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be female and black. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be female and black. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be African American and female. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be African American and female. Please don’t call me an artist who happens to be female and African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher who happens to be female and African American. Please don’t call me a black artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a black philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me an African American artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a woman artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a woman philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a female artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a female philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a black woman artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a black woman philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me an African American woman artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American woman philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a black female artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a black female philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me an African American female artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me an African American female philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a female black artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a female black philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me a female African American artist and philosopher. Please don’t call me a female African American philosopher and artist. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be black. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be black. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be African American. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be a woman. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be female. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be female. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be black and a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be black and a woman. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be a woman and black. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be a woman and black. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be African American and a woman. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be African American and a woman. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be a woman and African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be a woman and African American. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be black and female. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be black and female. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be female and black. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be female and black. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be African American and female. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be African American and female. Please don’t call me an artist and philosopher who happens to be female and African American. Please don’t call me a philosopher and artist who happens to be female and African American. Dear Editor, I hope you will bring to my attention any permutations I have overlooked. I write to inform you that I have earned the right to be called an artist. I have earned the right to be called a philosopher. I have earned the right to be called an artist and philosopher. I have earned the right to be called a philosopher and artist. I have earned the right to call myself anything I like.

1 January 2003

Here's what Palin said to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren:

In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Wednesday, Palin said the "lamestream media" is asking more questions about Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell's background than it ever did about "Barack Hussein Obama."

"Funny … that we are learning more about Christine O'Donnell and her college years, her teenage years, and her financial dealings than anybody even bothered to ask about Barack Hussein Obama as a candidate and now as our president," Palin said.

The argument in itself is rich, coming from someone who was vetted by the McCain campaign for all of eight minutes before she was selected to be next in line for the presidency. This myth that the media has "never asked questions" about Obama is, of course, absurd. There probably hasn't been a single person in the history of the human race whose life has been more scrutinized, save for possibly Jesus Christ. The purpose, though, in pretending that we just don't know much about Obama is to feed the doubts some people have about this biracial, exotically-named man's mysterious, and possibly un-American, "otherness."